> Farmers and producers of certain agricultural products are REQUIRED by> the government to contribute to a checkoff fund, which produces> advertising campaigns, over which the contributor generally has no> control. Any farmer that wants out of the program because they don't> think they benefit, or because they disagree with the messages from> the campaign, have to fight a long up-hill battle with the government,> and risk serious retaliation.

While that used to be the case (and no doubt the people who
collect/pocket that money do their best to unpublicize the news ...)
there have been a slew of recent court decisions that ruled mandatory
checkoffs of this sort are unconstitutional. (Still waiting for a
definitive and final ruling from the Supreme Court).

The following url leads to a good writeup. The group is clearly biased,
but the facts are true ...